1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that is capable of printing out print data transmitted from a user's using portable terminal by a close-range wireless communication system or print data obtained from the portable terminal according to storage information of the print data; a print data processing method of the image forming apparatus; and a computer readable recording medium having a print data processing program recorded therein to make a computer of the image forming apparatus execute processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description sets forth the inventor's knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-157084, an image forming apparatus such as a MFP (Multi Functional Peripheral) that is a multifunctional digital machine has been known to receive print data that is transmitted from a portable terminal such as a cell-phone by a close-range wireless communication system such as the Bluetooth, and print out the print data.
When using such an image forming apparatus, there is a consciousness that the security of print data recorded in the image forming apparatus should be ensured, which has grown for recent years as in the case of other image forming apparatuses. In order to ensure the security, it is desirable to delete the print data recorded therein if a trouble or etc. occurs to the image forming apparatus.
Furthermore, as suggested in Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-227760, an image forming apparatus has been known to transmit an inquiry whether or not to retry printing, to a host computer who instructed a print job via a network, instead of immediately deleting data recorded therein, if an error occurs while printing a confidential document, and then retry printing if a retry instruction is issued, meanwhile cancel the job and delete the data if no retry instruction is issued.
Also, an image forming apparatus has been known to display a notice on a display panel of the image forming apparatus itself and/or on a display device of a computer used by a user who instructed a print job, if a print operation happens to be interrupted due to occurrence of a trouble.
However, if a trouble or etc. occurs and print data recorded therein is immediately deleted without any conditions, the user has to retransmit the print data to the image forming apparatus from his/her using portable terminal even though the trouble is easy enough to restore the operation to normal status soon, which causes poor usability.
Meanwhile, if a trouble or etc. occurs while a close-range wireless communication is disabled due to the user's being away from the image forming apparatus, a notice cannot be displayed in the way described in Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-227760, which causes a problem that the print data is left recorded therein and the security cannot be ensured. To resolve this problem, the image forming apparatus can be configured to register notification addresses of portable terminals to transmit a notice for users. However, there is another problem that the users who have not registered their notification addresses are not allowed to use this service, which still causes poor usability.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. Indeed, certain features of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages, while still retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.